The background description provided here is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
Substrate processing systems may be used to perform etching, deposition, and/or other treatment of substrates such as semiconductor wafers. Example processes that may be performed on a substrate include, but are not limited to, a plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) process, a chemically enhanced plasma vapor deposition (CEPVD) process, a sputtering physical vapor deposition (PVD) process, an ion implantation process, and/or other etch (e.g., chemical etch, plasma etch, reactive ion etch, etc.), deposition, and cleaning processes. A substrate may be arranged on a substrate support, such as a pedestal, an electrostatic chuck (ESC), etc. in a processing chamber of the substrate processing system. For example, during etching, a gas mixture including one or more precursors is introduced into the processing chamber and plasma is struck to etch the substrate.
During process steps, process parameters (e.g., temperatures of various components of the system and the substrate, pressure within the processing chamber deposition rates, etch rates, power, etc.) may vary. These variations may have effects on the resulting substrates (e.g., effects on critical dimensions of the substrates).